The Haitian Government has announced an increase in the minimum wages less than a week after police used tear-gas to disperse textile workers who took to the streets to demand an increase in their minimum wages.
The workers demanded a 300 percent increase in the minimum wage, which is now 500 Gourdes per eight-hour working day, and other social benefits, such as transport and food subsidies.
The Council of Ministers met on Sunday and agreed to increase the minimum wages for different categories of workers effective Monday.
According to the decree published in the Official Journal “Le Moniteur” workers in the private electricity production; financial institutions, telecommunications; import-export trade; supermarkets; jewelry stores; art galleries; furniture, furniture, and appliance stores; doctor’s office and polyclinics, will receive a 54 percent increase moving their minimum wage from 500 to 770 Gourdes.
The Council said workers in the building and public works; truck and heavy machinery rental companies; construction material rental companies; construction material transport companies; hardware stores; other financial institutions such as cooperatives, credit unions will receive a 39.7 percent increase with their new wages being 615 Gourdes, up from 440 Gourdes.
Another segment of workers who received 385 Gourdes per eight-hour day will now receive 540 Gourdes. These workers are in restaurants; agriculture, forestry, livestock, and fishing; agricultural products processing industry retail trade.
The decree from the Haitian Government also announced salary increases of 37 to 40 percent for workers whose daily pay ranges from 250 to 440 Gourdes.
Last week, Senate President, Joseph Lambert, called for an independent investigation into the circumstances that led to police officers using teargas to break up a demonstration by textile workers seeking an increase in wages.
In a letter sent to Frantz Elbé, the Director-General of the National Police of Haiti, Lambert said he was dismayed at the intense manner in which the police had intervened to break up the demonstration by the textile workers, who had been demonstrating peacefully.
Lambert called on Elbé to launch an investigation into the matter and “take the corresponding” actions due to the findings.
Secretary-General of the Autonomous Center of Haitian Workers, Fignolé Saint Cyr, said the minimum wage in Haiti had not been readjusted since November 1, 2019.
He said the law provides an adjustment each time inflation exceeds 10 percent, which has been the case for the past two years.
CMC
